Interpretation
of The Annunciation by Fra Angelico

A masterpiece of Renaissance
art, the Annunciation that Fra Angelico (Guido di Pietro) painted
for the north corridor of the San Marco convent is arguably his finest
version of this traditional theme. Painted in fresco,
it formed part of the decorative scheme at the Dominican convent in Florence
- one of the most important sets of murals from the Renaissance
in Florence. Financed by the Florentine
Medici family, the commission was awarded around 1440 and included
the convent's altarpiece together with more than fifty other frescoes.
It followed the redesign and renovation of the entire friary - church,
living quarters and library - by the architect Michelozzo di Bartolomeo,
and the opening of the first public library since Antiquity, at a cost
of more than thirty-six thousand ducats. A Dominican friar who was reportedly
regarded as an inspired saint, Fra Angelico was in fact a highly talented
painter fully in tune with artistic developments of the Early
Renaissance, who travelled extensively and produced some of the greatest
Christian art of the time - switching
in the process from International
Gothic to the modern Florentine idiom. He was a master of all mediums
including panel paintings,
fresco and tempera.

Dominican monks at San Marco followed a
life of strict, devout worship and lived in simple, humble cells. Fra
Angelico's Biblical art (concerning
the Life and in particular the Passion of Christ, as well as regular themes
like The Annunciation, The Adoration of the Magi, The
Descent From the Cross, Madonna and Child with Angels and Saints,
and others) were designed to aid their meditations and inspire their devotions.
Fra Angelico's deeply moving Annunciation - which depicts the Virgin
being told by Archangel Gabriel that she is to bear the child Jesus -
located on the south wall of the north corridor, was deliberately positioned
on the upper floor in front of the staircase, as an illusionary window,
which looked out onto a garden and cloistered area. In this way, the artist
brought the sacred scene of the Annunciation into the monks' perceived
world of physical reality.

Composition

One of the last San Marco frescoes to be
completed, this masterpiece of Early
Renaissance painting was painted on Angelico's return from Rome in
1450. It shows Gabriel and the Virgin conversing in a cloister fringed
with Corinthian columns. Mary is pictured seated within the cloister,
which underlines her separateness from the world. The picture perfectly
expresses the feeling of veneration on the part of Gabriel, as well as
the submissive humility of the Madonna, while the gentle nature of the
scene is reflected in the curves of both the figures and the architecture.
Although the picture indicates good control of linear
perspective, its lighting is rather inconsistent. Mary casts a shadow,
but Gabriel does not - perhaps because he is a messenger of God. In addition,
interior of the arcade is evenly lit throughout, despite the natural daylight
coming from the left. Given the evenness of the lighting, the modelling
of the figures owes more to Giotto
(1267-1337) than to Masaccio
(1401-1428) or, less still, Jan
Van Eyck (c.1390-1441).

Fra Angelico repeated the Annunciation
theme in an individual cell (No. 3) at San Marco, but here the scene
is sparser and set in a more enclosed space, with a reverent St. Dominic
in the background.

Fra Angelico's Annunciation at Cortona
(c.1433)

Another famous version of the Annunciation
by Fra Angelico is the tempera painting executed on wood for the altarpiece
of the church of San Domenico at Cortona, now in the town's Museo Diocesano.
An altogether richer, more decorative painting than the San Marco version,
its figures of Gabriel and Mary are painted much larger than normal, in
order to be more visible by the congregation, that was often seated some
distance away. The ornate furnishings and robes glorify the splendour
of God. In the far background, as if to illustrate his mastery of perspective,
the artist inserted a miniature, shadowy Expulsion of Adam and Eve
from the Garden of Eden. Perhaps Fra Angelico is intimating that the
birth of Christ will redeem Adam and Eve's original sin and bring us all
back to brilliance. A number of small pictures painted in translucent
colours for the base (predella) of the altarpiece feature additional stories
of praise to the Virgin.

Fra Angelico's Annunciation in the Prado
(c.1430)

This earlier Annunciation is the
principal painting on the panel
known as the Prado Altarpiece. The painting, which was originally commissioned
for the Church of San Domenico in Fiesole, was later sold and taken to
Spain. Underneath the Annunciation are five small scenes illustrating
the story of the Virgin. They include: Mary's birth, her marriage to Saint
Joseph, her visit to her cousin Saint Elisabeth, the birth of Jesus, and
the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. The basic pictorial design of
the main image of the Annunciation was reused by the artist in
both the Cortona and San Marco versions.

Fra Angelico

Devoted exclusively to religious art, Fra
Angelico is best known for his fresco paintings in San Marco. These can
be divided into two groups: those pictures intended for communal contemplation
(like the Annunciation), and those designed for private meditation
by friars in their cells (like Noli Me Tangere, the Transfiguration
and the Coronation of the Virgin). He utilized his art purely for
didactic purposes - to pictorialize and illustrate the message of God
- and, while influenced by both Giotto and Tommaso Masaccio, he personnifies
how the new Renaissance mastery of architectural perspective accompanies
a continuing delight in the Byzantine
use of decorative gilding.

NOTE: Compare Fra Angelico's highly traditional
Annunciation with the more modernist approach of Lorenzo
Lotto (1480-1556), one of the more unusual artists of the Venetian
High Renaissance.